Life and Law by Anna

Friday, July 06, 2012

Political Campaign Contributions: A Waste of Money {Soapbox}

Several weeks ago, I spotted an ad to enter a giveaway for dinner with President Obama. There are to be 3 winners and each winner can bring a guest. The dinner is to be held at an undisclosed location with dinner, airfare and hotel accommodations paid for the winners and their guests.

That sounds like a nice gesture to get in touch with the "real people" in the nation and chat with the President while breaking bread together. For a split second, I even contemplated entering this drawing.

But here's the part that got to me. The estimated value of each winner's package is $4800. So, for all 3 winners and guests, that's almost $15,000; and that doesn't count the cost of the President's travels and secret service duties, etc.

Now, $15,000 probably doesn't seem like much to the President and the committee, Obama for America, who is conducting this contest, but to the average American family, $15,000 is a good chunk of change. And for the average American family who is living under the gun of unemployment or underemployment and the ever rising costs of living, $15,000 is a great sum.

And honestly, what will this contest get the President and his committee? Mostly contact information for thousands of voting citizens; whom they will bombard with phone calls, emails and letters for the next 6 months. For the 6 citizens, who are most likely already going to vote for Obama, it gives them a chance to bend the President's ear for an hour or two and a good story to tell their grandkids about the time they got to have dinner with the President of the United States.

Seriously, what a waste of money. And remember, I'm a democrat and generally vote that way.

Another story that really got me going was the report about Sheldon Adelson and his donations to conservative causes and campaigns. Now, let me preface this by saying that each person can certainly spend his or her money any way he or she pleases. My intent is merely to point out the extravagances of political campaigns and the wasted dollars for what....mostly so the people contributing can ensure they have votes in their pockets concerning issues that will cause them to lose money or make more money down the road {most likely the reason for Adelson's very generous spirit}.

Adelson, a billionaire casino tycoon and conservative, is contributing $10 million to the Super PAC that supports Mitt Romney, the GOP candidate, but even more disconcerting is the report that Adelson will be giving at least $100 million to other conservative causes and campaigns.

To a billionaire like Adelson $100 million probably means absolutely nothing. It certainly won't affect the way he and his family live. But just think what a $100 million could mean to the strapped school districts in our country, youth programs, scholarship funds and other community programs that could mean the difference from lost, uneducated, stamped down, underperforming, dependent on welfare to educated, informed, confident, hard-working, self-sufficient adults of tomorrow.

It's not just Obama for America and Adelson I mean to point my finger at. It's all political campaigns and contributors that I'm targeting.

I have a theory I'd love to try.

I'd love to see what would happen if instead of campaign contributions going for ridiculous, outrageous, stupid, degrading advertising, endless phone calls to citizens, dinners with big contributors, traveling the country with huge entourages and staying in 5 star hotels, eating expensive meals, getting costly haircuts, buying designer clothes and living the high life on the road to supreme success or failure, the candidate put the money towards bettering communities hit hard by the economic hardships brought on by gluttonous executives and hasty, misguided, greedy politicians.

What if the candidate actually put his money where his mouth is and started doing the things he says he will do if elected? What if the candidate gave money to school districts to hire a sufficient number of teachers, helped to equip schools with new equipment and up-to-speed programs and set up scholarships for graduating students? What if the candidate helped poor families who have greatly suffered from losing jobs and insurance coverage by repairing homes or getting necessary medical treatments or eye glasses or buying new shoes for growing kids or filling empty cupboards?

What if underfunded youth programs received sufficient funding and staffing from a candidate's coffers? What if these programs meant fewer drive-by shootings, fewer drug-pushers on the corner, fewer teen-agers having babies, fewer drop-outs all because these kids had somewhere to go, somewhere to feel secure, somewhere to get love and support?

What if a candidate did this? What would happen? Would the candidate win for being sincere and real and seeing what America really needs or would the candidate lose because there had been no glitz or glamour; no elitism; no playing mistress to the big boys of the corporate world?

As of April of this year, the conservative Super PAC, Restore Our Future, had raised $56.5 million. Just think of all the good that could be done with that amount of money. Instead it will be COMPLETELY WASTED.

There is so much waste in politics; so much that I can hardly bare to think about it. This much waste makes me physically sick.

Let's remember that the original obligation of government was to serve the people of the fledgling country through a democracy. How far we have strayed from that dream of our Founding Fathers. Now, our government is ruled by corporations and the almighty dollar; regardless of whether you vote blue or red, your government representatives are not there for you. That is, they aren't there to listen or help you unless you have a very large amount of money to contribute to their campaigns; and by large I mean at least $1,000,000.00.

Cynical? Hell, yes, but is this not an honest picture of today's political campaigns? Over and out....